Tuesday

Oct 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 15, 2013 at 3:01 PM

As manufacturers continue to find ways to circumvent a federal law that bans ingredients within synthetic marijuana, more towns are taking a look at what they can do to keep the drug off the streets and out of reach from youth it attracts. This week, Middleboro joined Avon, Taunton and North Attleboro in signing into law a local ban on the drug. Raynham, too, has a bylaw in draft form.

The feds have banned it. The state has outlawed it.

But some authorities throughout the greater Brockton region are still seeing synthetic marijuana, known most commonly as Spice or K2, in stores and on the streets.

Area police chiefs say that’s because manufacturers are skirting a federal law, by slightly altering the ingredients in what’s being marketed as incense.

But experts say the makeup is still just as dangerous, and can lead to organ failure and even death.

“This is not a benign thing,” said Dr. Joseph Shrand, medical director for the High Point Treatment Center program in Brockton called CASTLE – or “Clean And Sober Teens Living Empowered.”

Most often smoked, “synthetic weed” – known on the street as Black Mamba, Bombay Blue, Genie, Fake weed and more – is a mixture of spices sprayed with a synthetic compound similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and passed off in small packages as incense or potpourri.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the drug has become increasingly popular among teens and young adults.

In 2011, nearly 23,000 hospital visits were reportedly linked to use of “bath salts,” a category of drugs that encompasses synthetic weed, a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration study shows.

In Brockton, Shrand, of the CASTLE program, remembers one case in which a young man’s kidneys shut down.

And a “significant group” of adolescents in the region, he says, are using.

So as manufacturers continue to find ways to circumvent the law, more towns are taking a look at what they can do to keep the drug off the streets and out of reach from youth it attracts.

This week, Middleboro joined Avon, Taunton and North Attleboro in signing into law a local ban on the drug.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Allin J. Frawley, of Middleboro spearheaded the new ordinance after seeing one of his daughter’s favorite cartoon characters on a package.

Raynham also has something in the works.

Police Chief Jim Donovan said he has drafted a bylaw echoing an ordinance Taunton signed into law in August, which not only prohibits sale and possession of the drug, but fines those found to be in violation.

“It’s not illegal right now, so we have people openly selling it,” Donovan said. “They claim it’s potpourri, but potpourri doesn’t sell for $20 for 10 grams.”

The new Raynham bylaw is being reviewed by the town’s attorney, and is scheduled to go up for a vote at Town Meeting next month, Donovan said, adding, it’s “ridiculous” they have to wait until a law is passed to act.

“We should be able to go into any store, find it, and pull it off the shelves without question,” Donovan said, pointing to how dangerous it can be.

In Bridgewater, Health Agent Eric Badger said he plans to bring the topic before the board at their next meeting to “get their opinion, do some more research on it,” he said.

Easton and Stoughton town officials say they haven’t really seen the drug around.

“Could it be out there? Sure,” said Easton Health Agent Mark Taylor. “But it’s not really been on our radar.”

Deputy Police Chief Robert Devine, of Stoughton, said his department hasn’t come across much of the drug at all either, but plans to address the issue along with marijuana at some point in the next year.

“It’s part of the overarching master plan for the town,” he said. “We’re not attacking it piecemeal as much as we’re trying to look at it comprehensively.”

A search of about a dozen area stores this week turned up little evidence that it is being sold in the greater Brockton region.

Nancy Brennan, who owns and runs Brennan’s Smoke Shop in Bridgewater said she clears steer of the stuff.

“If it’s in question, why bother with it,” Brennan said. “I’m not interested in checking my back every day.”

Clerks in several other stores said they had never heard of it, or knew of it, but rarely got requests to buy it.

“I think I’ve only been asked maybe once in three years,” said Kevin O’Connell, manager for Shovel Shop Spirits, in Easton, which doesn’t sell it.

Dawn Campitelli has worked at Smoke & Ashes Tobacco Co. in Abington for the past year. Out of the dozen or so stores checked by Enterprise reporters, Smoke & Ashes was the single store that reported carrying it.

It’s not a lot of people who ask for it though, said Campitelli: “It’s pretty much the same person or people that buy it.”

Dave Brennan, who runs that shop along with Brennan News in Abington said the products falling under the federal ban have been taken off the shelves and replaced with a product that is similar, but legal, and marketed still by hundreds of companies, he said.

They might still call it Spice, but it’s just herbs, he says.

“You’re talking about stuff that grows on the mountains in South America,” he said. “Any cities and towns that are looking to ban it... there’s nothing to ban.”

The DEA in June announced the “designer drugs” were “destroying lives,” DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a press release. “DEA has been at the forefront of the battle against this trend and is targeting these new and emerging drugs with every scientific, legislative, and investigative tool at our disposal.”

“The sad thing,” said Avon Police Chief Warren Phillips, “is there’s no control on this stuff.”

One batch could cause a slight high, he said.

“The next batch could cost them their life,” he added.

About two years ago, ACES, the Avon Coalition for Every Student, worked together to educate parents, and with help from police, pulled the product from one store that had been selling it.

Their approach worked – he hasn’t seen it in town since – but more needs to be done, Phillips said.

“You can’t just do it in one community because the kids can just go a town over (to buy it),” Phillips said. “In order for it to work, it’s gotta be done everywhere.”